


My Dying Day

by thequidditchpitch_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Explicit Language, Friendship, Post-Hogwarts, The Quidditch Pitch: Leaving Feast, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-09-25
Updated: 2005-09-25
Packaged: 2018-10-27 08:01:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10805076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thequidditchpitch_archivist/pseuds/thequidditchpitch_archivist
Summary: You know how your life flashes before your eyes the moment before you die...?





	My Dying Day

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Annie, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Quidditch Pitch](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Quidditch_Pitch), which went offline in 2015 when the hosting expired, at a time I was not able to renew it. I contacted Open Doors, hoping to preserve the archive using an old backup, and began importing these works as an Open Doors-approved project in April 2017. Open Doors e-mailed all authors about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Quidditch Pitch collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thequidditchpitch/profile).

Never knew I could feel like this...like I've never seen the sky before

They say when someone dies, they see their life flash before their eyes. For me, it was  
no different. I felt the odd moments of my life play themselves out before me, as if  
putting on some sickening skit to keep me occupied while the job at hand was finished.

With the heat of battle around me I had frozen, and for some reason my last year at  
Hogwarts snuck into my mind. Sneaking around the library with her, nervous hands  
shaking and clasping with mine. They had been studying...then laughing quietly as they  
maneuvered between the stacks.

"We'll get caught," she whispered, her eyes darting between the stacks to where Madam  
Pince magically replaced returned books.

I took her hands and placed them on my shoulders, trying hard to suppress the grin that  
threatened. "You're Head Girl; just tell her snogging in the library is part of your studies.  
She'll believe you."

She giggled at that, and pulled my mouth down over hers before she or I could chicken  
out. I had kissed other girls, but none compared before or after I had tasted her. Her lips  
were soft and pink, fitting firmly with mine as if the Gods had created our mouths simply  
for one another. I loved it when she kissed me...her hands would clench at the sleeves  
of my jumper as if she was holding back the urge for more...as if she could never get  
enough and it was killing her.

Want to vanish inside your kiss...everyday I love you more and more.

It faded away into black, replaced by the memory of my first time with her. We were both  
awkward and inexperienced but we didn't know any better. Every jerky movement, every  
sloppy kiss had been perfect.

 

"I don't know if I'll hurt you," I whispered, sliding her hair out of her eyes. She was  
trembling only slightly beneath me, her hands gripping my shoulders as her legs slid up  
to my waist.

She didn't reply but dragged my mouth to hers as I slid inside of her. Though she winced  
slightly, she didn’t frown, or cry out in pain. I leaned over her, my own body beginning to  
shake from the incredible feeling...from the incredible realization that I was inside  
her...moving against her...loving her. She only whimpered, moaning softly as our bodies  
found the silky rhythm.

She arched against me, my name slipping quietly from her lips as she let go. Then she  
opened her eyes to mine, locking silently...and she had smiled. The simplistic beauty of  
her caused every knot inside of my stomach to come undone and I shuddered, allowing  
myself to fall from the edge.

Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place...

I asked her to marry me our last day of Hogwarts. The threat of Voldemort had loomed  
dangerously close...several of our friends and their families had already died. The final  
battle was drawing near, sending small slivers of fear into us, but uniting us with  
determination and loyalty.

I don't remember why I did it. It had never crossed my mind before. But we sat on the  
floor in Sirius' lounge, studying the spells and curses to be used against the Death  
Eaters the night we would attack the Riddle House. She had looked so tired, her skin  
unusually pale, her hair tied back from her face. She sat with her legs crossed, a large  
book of spells resting on her lap. I watched her for a little while, my finger tapping  
silently on the edge of the dusty book she had dropped in front of me.

"So...I think you should marry me." I blurted out; just as surprised as she was when her  
head snapped up to look at me.

"What?"

I coughed, knowing my cheeks had flushed several shades of red. I fidgeted for a  
moment, about to laugh it off as a joke that really hadn't been very funny. But then I  
found her eyes with mine once more and any thought of backtracking suddenly slid out  
of my mind. She was looking at me now, her lips parted slightly, her brown eyes wide,  
yet the corners of her mouth were twitching into a small smile. I knew then it was right. I  
knew she was supposed to be my wife. The other half of me that had been missing.  
Even if she wasn't now, she would be someday. She would be. It was such a simple,  
overwhelming truth.

"Marry me. I want you to marry me."

She had gulped hard, closing the book in front of her. I could see the thousands of  
reasons why we probably shouldn't steaming through her head like the Hogwarts  
Express, but suddenly her mouth curved into a smile.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

She nodded happily, shifting the book off of her lap and jumping into my arms. We  
laughed in between the frantic kisses and childish rolling around on the floor.

Seasons may change...winter to spring...

We married within two days, to no objections or disapproving looks. Our fate was up in  
the air...the outcome of the final battle unknown. The only thing that had seemed right at  
that moment in our lives was each other. We grasped onto that and held tight, knowing  
we would have nothing if we let it go.

I wore tan trousers and a white button down shirt. She had worn a simple knee length  
white dress, her hair pinned back with a white lily. I remember I couldn't stop grinning  
from ear to ear as I took her hand in mine, Harry smiling wildly next to me, my mother's  
sniffles filling the silence before Professor Dumbledore began to speak. My heart  
skipped a beat when the scent of her lily drifted on the summer breeze into my senses.  
She must have felt my pulse quicken because she suddenly squeezed my hand gently.

"Ronald Weasley, will you take Hermione Granger to be your wife. To cherish and to  
love, forsaking all others, for as long as you both shall live?"

I turned to her, taking her left hand and sliding the small diamond onto her finger. "I will."

"Hermione Granger, will you take Ronald Weasley to be your husband. To cherish and  
to love, forsaking all others, for as long as you both shall live?"

She slid the simple silver band onto my finger and quite simply looked up at me,  
emotions swirling in her chocolate eyes. "I will."

"Where there was coldness, there is now warmth. Where there was darkness, there is  
now light. Love has given you wings, and wherever the wind may carry you, let your  
journey be together."

When Dumbledore had finished, I swept Hermione into my arms, sliding my lips over  
hers gently. We pulled away, grinning madly at one another as our families had engulfed  
us, tears and happy wishes flowing like water.

Storms clouds may gather and stars may collide...but I love you...

The memories flashed through me, her voice still echoing in the haze of my mind before  
thrusting me harshly back into reality. I remember we had only been married a  
week before the day the final battle between good and evil began. Death Eaters and  
Aurors...Professors and students. Bodies littered the cemetery, a fire raged inside the  
abandoned church. Harry had disappeared to find Voldemort just as Hermione  
positioned herself a safe distance away, in front of an aging tomb, silently performing the  
Protection Spell that would allow Harry to find Voldemort without any attacks or  
distractions. Her eyes were shut, her mouth moving very quickly as the rain began to fall.

I had just punched Blaise Zabini, my knuckles cracking sickeningly on his jaw when I  
saw the flash of blonde hair drifting up the lawn to where Hermione had hidden.

Instantly I recognized Lucius Malfoy, and stumbled forward as the distance  
between he and Hermione became unbearably thin. I managed a shout of warning...a  
guttural noise I had somehow managed to create through the panic and fear pounding  
through me.

She quickly opened her eyes, scrambling to her feet, but her mouth continued to chant  
the words Harry so desperately needed. Her hand reached inside her robes frantically  
for her wand.

The chaos around me disappeared, the body that knocked me to the ground went  
unnoticed as I somehow managed to pick myself up and violently rid myself of the Death  
Eater and within seconds I was running towards her.

Looking back I could swear it had happened in slow motion. You know those dreams  
where you’re running for someone, or something and no matter how fast your feet seem  
to be taking you, you really don't seem to be moving at all. And they just get farther and  
farther away and no amount of determination can open your lungs so you can breathe  
and call for them.

Their hands had risen in coordination, and I pushed another cry through my throat when  
Draco Malfoy stepped casually out of the tomb behind her, his knife poised and then  
sliding delicately along her throat. Her brown eyes had widened with shock and her  
wand fell out of her hand which drifted limply to her side.

Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place...

I only had time to pull my wand out, and set off those green sparks that echoed along  
the wind with my scream. It was feral, filled with fury and anguish. My throat had been  
raw for several days afterward in which no Pepper Up Potion could cure.

The Malfoys' bodies had fallen to the cold ground quickly and lifelessly but she remained  
standing, her feet stumbling forward as her hand slowly lifted to the blood that had  
begun to pour down her throat.

I don't know how but it seemed as if some type of magic had Apparated me to her side  
because as she fell, I fell, capturing her in my arms before her body could hit the ground.  
The blood wouldn't stop and I remember screaming for help. It seems absurd now,  
screaming for help while a battle raged around me. No one could hear me. No one  
would hear me no matter how loudly I cried.

Deafening silence.

It wasn't until several days later that I had realized I had been screaming her name the  
entire time.

Her eyes drifted up to mine, her hand covered grotesquely in her own blood. She couldn't  
speak but I could see the surprise and the damn apology, as if she were telling me she  
was sorry she had let me down. That she was leaving me behind. And then, despite my  
protests, her eyes shut, her hand sliding down her throat to her chest and falling with a  
quiet and final thud to the ground beside her.

My tears fell but I couldn’t tell them apart from the rain that washed her blood away.  
There's was nothing left around me, the spells and hexes faded away, the smell of death  
and blood disappeared. I remember shaking her, cursing her, pleading with her, fighting  
with her.

God, I wanted her to open those beautiful brown eyes and snap at me. Yell at me. Tell  
me to stop being such a prat. But they remained closed. They remained closed.

And then I went crazy.

I pulled her up close to my chest and screamed and screamed and screamed...

Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace.

I don't visit her. Even after five years, the grief was still painfully raw. I can't bring myself  
to look down on her, put away to rest several feet under the ground...in the dark. I hadn't  
wanted to put her there...the dirt and the bugs and the worms. In my eyes they were only  
suitable for people like the Malfoys. But her parents had insisted...what else could I do  
but try to understand a Muggles way of dealing with grief.

If I had my way I would have kept her in my arms forever, until, by some natural cause  
or miracle I could join her. And I knew she would be waiting for me, her hands on her  
hips, her head cocked to the side. And she would call me a prat before taking my hand  
and taking me with her. And that was all that kept me going through the quiet repetitive  
cycle of life.

You see, when I saw her fade away that day, my life had indeed flashed before my  
eyes...she had flashed before my eyes.

Because Hermione had been my life.

I will love you. Until the end of time.


End file.
